Failure™ Magazine

Get Your Wings

On the centennial of first flight, rediscover the remarkable achievements of the Wright Brothers.

Written by Jason Zasky   Filed under History, Science & Technology

Even a century later, the controversy continues. For his part, Collins believes the Wright Brothers still don’t receive the respect they deserve, noting that Langley has had an aircraft carrier, CIA building, NASA research center and a city in Virginia named after him. (Among other things, the Wrights have a state university and an airport named in their honor.) On the other hand, Shulman believes that Curtiss’ importance to aviation has been under-represented, and attempts to give him additional credit via “Unlocking The Sky.”

“My purpose in the book wasn’t to in any way denigrate what the Wright Brothers did,” says Shulman. “They put the last piece of the puzzle in place, but if anything we probably make too much of the last piece of the puzzle. We remember things wrong if we say that the [aviators that preceded the Wright Brothers] were failures.”

Yet, in their letters the Wright Brothers consistently acknowledge their sources of inspiration and their careful study of the aviation pioneers that preceded them. In “The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright” (1953), editor Marvin W. McFarland notes that the Wright Brothers bent over backwards to give credit where credit was due. By the time he died of a heart attack on January 30, 1948, Orville had received hundreds of letters from fellow inventors who wanted him to acknowledge them as inventor of the airplane. Despite the fact that many of these so-called inventors were clearly frauds, Orville was generally patient in answering their letters and sometimes even spent considerable time researching their work and claims. On occasion, Orville must have found these inquiries exasperating, as evidenced by his response, dated November 8, 1929, to a letter from the unknown W.A. Crawford-Frost: “I beg to acknowledge receipt of your surprising letter of November 5th in which you ask me to recognize you as the inventor of the aeroplane. Never before having heard of you or of your inventions I can hardly do this,” he wrote.

Air Power
While Wilbur died before the propeller gave way to the jet engine, Orville lived to see the rapid evolution of the technology they created. “He had no idea from the humble first flight of 12 seconds what aviation would become in his lifetime,” relates Collins, and believes the Wright Brothers couldn’t even imagine the state of aviation in 2003. “They never conceived the airplane flying with an accuracy at night or realized an airplane might fly great distances over water,” elaborates Collins.

Ironically, in the very beginning the Wright Brothers felt the invention of the airplane would deter war, a notion shattered by World War I. In a letter to C.M. Hitchcock, dated June 21, 1917, Orville wrote: “When my brother and I built and flew the first man-carrying flying machine, we thought we were introducing into the world an invention which would make further wars practically impossible…. Nevertheless, the world finds itself in the greatest war in history. Neither side has been able to win on account of the part the aeroplane has made.” After the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945, Orville wrote: “I once thought the aeroplane would end wars. I now wonder whether the aeroplane and the atomic bomb can do it. It seems that ambitious rulers will sacrifice the lives and property of all their people to gain a little personal fame.”

“He [Orville] related the invention of the airplane to the discovery of fire. Fire has its destructive ends, but also has its good ends,” says Collins, who reports that since September 11, 2001 the Wright Brothers National Memorial has received countless letters from school children apologizing to the Wright Brothers and saying how sorry they are about the terrorist attacks.

One True Love
According to Collins, what ultimately made the Wright Brothers successful was their ability to think outside the box, their patient and methodical approach, and their willingness to learn from other people’s mistakes. “They realized at the very beginning that this problem was just too great for one mind to solve,” he says. “In the beginning they felt they had no chance of achieving their goal, but they felt they could add to the information and someone else would fly.”

But their commitment to the project also played a role, as neither married or had children, fearing they could not develop the airplane and focus on a family at the same time. “They were very dedicated men,” continues Collins. “They basically lived their whole lives for this invention, neglecting to go on and do what people usually do.”

See also:
Narcís Monturiol: The man who gave the world the submarine

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